Final Word from Thursday, March 3, 2016
When a Czech court needs to condemn a president for an ugly comment, justice in a civil suit can flow like the Vltava, as witnessed yesterday by the ruling against Miloš Zeman in the "Hitler is a gentleman" case. When Czech law-enforcement agencies need to address criminal cases involving the nation's top sitting politicians, justice usually flows like molasses. It will probably take an investigation by the EU Commission's OLAF anti-fraud office to bring resolution in the Stork's Nest subsidy-fraud case. A just resolution to the OKD privatization involving Bohuslav Sobotka or the Agrotec case involving Andrej Babiš and Jaroslav Faltýnek will likely never come, partly because it could mean the collapse of the government. Just as "too big to fail" is a defining principle in international banking, "too big to jail" is increasingly the reality in the business of politics. One of the biggest public secrets is that justice wears political blinders. [Czech Republic Agrofert]
Glossary of difficult words
sitting (politician) - currently in office;
molasses - thick, dark brown, uncrystallized juice obtained from raw sugar during the refining process;
too big to fail - (of a financial organization or other business) so important to the economy of a country that a government or central bank must take measures to prevent it from ceasing to trade or going bankrupt;
blinder - a limitation or obstruction to sight or discernment; something that prevents someone from gaining a full understanding of a situation.